The Malik Report

Almost everything went well for the Grand Rapids Griffins in their home opener. The Griffins defeated the Rockford IceHogs 6-1, on the strength of 6 goals scored by 6 different players; Joe Veleno and Chase Pearson (1G and 1A) were among the scorers; Kirill Tyutyayev had 2 assists in his AHL debut; Jonatan Berggren registered a beautiful assist; and Calvin Pickard stopped 23 of 24 shots for Grand Rapids.

All of the Griffins performed in front of a sellout crowd, as well as Steve Yzerman and Dan Cleary, who made the drive from Detroit to take in Friday night’s game.

Here’s the Griffins website’s recap:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Six different Grand Rapids Griffins lit the lamp and five enjoyed two-point nights on Friday as the home team roared to its largest-ever victory in a Van Andel Arena opener, defeating the Rockford IceHogs 6-1 before a capacity crowd of 10,834.

Chase Pearson, Tyler Spezia and Dennis Yan each tallied a goal and an assist while both reigning AHL Defenseman of the Year Ryan Murphy and rookie Kirill Tyutyayev chipped in a pair of helpers, leading Grand Rapids to a win for the fifth time in its last six home debuts.

Continue reading Griffins defeat Rockford 6-1 in home opener

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan found out today that the Red Wings’ coaching staff grades its players on each and every game performance, and it’s hard to earn a perfect grade. Less-than-surprisingly, Tyler Bertuzzi’s 4-goal game yesterday merited a “5 out of 5”:

The Wings’ coaching staff rates every player on a 1-to-5 scale for every game. Coach Jeff Blashill said Friday rarely has a player received a five rating. Bertuzzi achieved that mark.

“He got fives across the board from the coaching staff,” Blashill said. “He was great in all areas of the ice. Obviously offensively, but defensively he tilted the ice a little bit, and he was good on the power play. He had an outstanding game and there certainly was a good vibe in the room.”

Bertuzzi is one of the most popular players in the locker room.

“As I told you guys when the news came out Bert wasn’t going to be vaccinated, our guys love Bert, he’s a guy you want to be around,” Blashill said. “He’s a winner, a great competitor. Everyone knows he had to ground through most of last year rehabbing into the summer, and he had a late start to the exhibition season. For a start like that, it’s awesome. He played excellent.”

Continued, with discussion about Robby Fabbri stepping into Dylan Larkin’s skates as he recovers from whatever injury he’s battling…

Before the news came down that Dylan Larkin had been suspended, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill had this to say to MLive’s Ansar Khan regarding his team’s need for collective reaction to would-be instigators:

“We got some fiery competitors on our team, and I’d rather have fiery competitors that you got to work with to make sure they keep their tempers in check than guys that are vanilla and aren’t competitors,” Blashill said.

The Lightning prevailed 7-6 in overtime in a chippy game that featured a lot of scrums and emotions running high. Blashill was asked if he is concerned about opponents taking liberties with some of the team’s younger players.

“Certainly, people test your young players,” Blashill said. “I’ve been with Dylan since Day 1. They’ve definitely tested him from a young age, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the same with (Lucas) Raymond and (Moritz) Seider. Those kids are both pretty tough, strong kids and they can, I think, do a pretty good job of protecting themselves. I guess if goes on we have to get people in here to make sure we’re protecting them.”

In his weekly notebook, The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek chooses to revisit the Red Wings’ decision to trade Pavel Datsyuk’s salary to the Arizona Coyotes as an example of the instability of the NHL draft, which of course led the Red Wings to draft now-Washington Capitals defenseman Dennis Cholowski instead of Jakob Chychrun:

In hindsight, it’s interesting to revisit the trade made on the draft floor that day in 2016 — when the Coyotes acquired the 16th pick from the Red Wings, and took on Pavel Datsyuk’s contract from Detroit as part of the deal. Detroit got the 20th and 53rd picks in return, but shed themselves of a contract that was preventing them from doing any other business.

At the time, the evaluation was that the deal was heavily weighted in Detroit’s favor because they got out of an expensive contract, only had to drop four spots in the draft to do so, and also got a second-rounder for their troubles.

But [Jakub] Chychrun was a highly-rated prospect that year; and started to fall — so Arizona targeted him and now the difference between Chychrun and ]Dennis] Chowlowski now is enormous. The former led the NHL in goals by a defenceman last year. The latter is now with his third team in four months. But then here’s the kicker. Detroit used that 53rd pick to select Filip Hronek, who led them in scoring last year, with 26 points in 56 games, three more than Dylan Larkin. So you just never know, right?

Continued; the reality of the trade is that it was designed to give the Red Wings the salary cap space to compete for Steven Stamkos as an unrestricted free agent, as well as the opportunity to draft Cholowski; the deal backfired spectacularly as Stamkos didn’t even listen to the Wings’ presentation, choosing to decide between Toronto and Tampa Bay instead, and Ken Holland chose to use his salary cap space to sign Frans Nielsen and Thomas Vanek instead.

The Grand Rapids Griffins play the Rockford IceHogs tonight at 7 PM EDT (on WXSP and AHLTV.com [for free]), and the Griffins Tweeted out their game-day preview video:

Get ready for tonight’s game with Game Day Preview.@MichiganFirstCU | #GoGRG pic.twitter.com/w1h2fLSMyM— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) October 15, 2021

Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin has been suspended for one game for his retaliation against Tampa Bay Lightning forward Mathieu Joseph. Larkin was injured on the play.

Detroit’s Dylan Larkin has been suspended for one game for Roughing Tampa Bay’s Mathieu Joseph. https://t.co/xcYgB6dnjh— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) October 15, 2021

I guess the message is, if you get injured, STAY DOWN, and here’s the press release:

NEW YORK (Oct. 15, 2021) – Detroit Red Wings forward Dylan Larkin has been suspended for one game, without pay, for roughing Tampa Bay Lightning forward Mathieu Joseph during NHL Game No. 9 in Detroit on Thursday, Oct. 14, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 11:37 of the second period. Larkin was assessed a match penalty.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Larkin will forfeit $30,500.00. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James quotes the video:

Continue reading Larkin suspended for one game

Of prospect-related note in Europe on Friday:

In the Finnish Liiga, Eemil Viro did not play in TPS Turku’s 3-2 victory over KalPa;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, Jesper Eliasson stopped 22 of 26 shots in Almtuna IS’s 4-3 OT loss to Sodertalje SK;

Filip Larsson served as the back-up in HV71 Jonkoping’s 5-2 loss to Bjorkloven;

And Albin Grewe finished even with 1 shot on goal in Mora IK’s 4-2 loss to Tingsryds IK. Gustav Berglund also finished at -2 with 5 shots on Mora’s blueline.

Updated 3x a 2:58 PM: Of post-practice note in the article department, subsequent to the practice Tweets, the post-practice comments and the videos of coach Jeff Blashill and forward Robby Fabbri’s remarks:

1. MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a summary of the situation, noting that Fabbri took Larkin’s place on the top line during Friday’s practice…

Larkin was on the ice briefly before practice Friday but didn’t try to accelerate or do anything. He took a short twirl and left after a minute or two.

Coach Jeff Blashill said he had no health update on Larkin or any indication of the significance of the injury.

It was Larkin’s first game since April 20 in Dallas, when he suffered a neck injury on a cross-check from Jamie Benn. Larkin was hospitalized and placed in a cervical collar for eight weeks.

Neither Benn or Joseph was penalized for their initial hits on Larkin, and Benn was not disciplined by the NHL.

2. And the Free Press’s Helene St. James noted coach Jeff Blashill’s exasperation regarding the situation surrounding Larkin’s injury:

Continue reading Post-practice articles: Khan, St. James discuss the Larkin situation

From the Red Wings: coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media after Friday’s practice, delivering bad news about Dylan Larkin’s condition:

Robby Fabbri spoke with the media as well:

Updated repeatedly at 1:32 PM: The Detroit Red Wings held a short practice on Friday afternoon absent one Dylan Larkin, who MLive’s Ansar Khan reported “took a little twirl” before the main group practiced.

As the Wings are hosting Vancouver on Saturday night (in a back-to-back for the Canucks), they’re coming off a 7-6 OT loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning…

And, as Larkin has that little hearing with the Department of Player Safety today, Robby Fabbri slid into the #1 center’s slot without Larkin in the lineup today, and that’s probably going to hold until tomorrow, assuming that Larkin is fined and/or suspended and/or hurt.

After a short practice (which Blashill promised it would be last night), the Red Wings held their media availabilities, and here’s what the coach had to say:

Jeff Blashill says Dylan Larkin could not practice today. Will “see some people today.” Was shaken up on hit from TBL Joseph Thursday. Faces hearing with DoPS for punching Joseph.— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) October 15, 2021

Jeff Blashill said Dylan Larkin couldn’t practice today. He will “see some people” after being hit in last night’s game vs. Tampa. #LGRW @DetroitRedWings— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) October 15, 2021

Jeff Blashill says he feels “pissed off” for Dylan Larkin that he feels he has to defend himself for hit. No penalty on Joseph for hitting Larkin right “in the numbers” into the boards. Larkin couldn’t practice today. Coming off neck injury in April.— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) October 15, 2021

Continue reading Friday’s post-practice Tweets: HSJ reports that Larkin will see ‘some people’ regarding his…injury.